Two Women Jailed After Fatal Dog Attack

Two women have been jailed for 12 months each after a pensioner was “literally eaten alive” by their dog.

Retired hospital porter Clifford Clarke, 79, was mauled in his garden in Liverpool after he opened his back door while he was cooking a meal.

The Presa Canario cross-breed dog had earlier escaped from the garden of his next-door neighbour in Richard Kelly Close in the Norris Green area of the city.

Last month, Hayley Sulley, 30, of Richard Kelly Close, and Della Woods, 29, of Swallowhurst Crescent, Norris Green, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act of allowing a dog to enter a place where it was not allowed to be and where it injured a person.

Today, both women wept in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court as Judge Mark Brown told them Mr Clarke’s death was “entirely avoidable”.

Both defendants had left the dog, Charlie, unattended in the garden on a hot day last May without water and shade while they went to a barbecue.

Both women, who are in a relationship, were told by the judge that they were fortunate not to have been charged with manslaughter.

He said the maximum sentence he could pass was two years.

New laws have been brought in since the fatal attack which has increased the maximum term to 14 years but the judge said that could not be applied retrospectively.

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